Rian Johnson - With Looper, Johnson showed the world that he can tell a gripping, original, intricate, sci-fi tale. The film had stellar visuals, interesting characters, and a unique premise. Johnson’s success there helped land him one of the most coveted jobs in all of Hollywood when he was hired to write and direct Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Lucasfilm felt so strongly about Johnson’s skill as a storyteller that they also hired him to pen the treatment for Star Wars: Episode IX. Also, when you look at the actors he’s gotten to work on his films during his relatively brief career (Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz, Emily Blunt, to name a few) this means he could probably put together a killer cast for this new The Matrix.

Doug Liman - Liman is one of those directors it’d be easy to sleep on. He’s no household name, and yet if you look at his body of work, you realize the man has been delivering the goods for a very long time. From the criminally-underrated Edge of Tomorrow on down, he’s put together an impressively varied resumé that includes Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity, and Swingers. He’s shown he can take obscure source material, like the Japanese light novel that Edge of Tomorrow is based on, and make it entertaining and engrossing to outsiders. Let’s not forget that the original Matrix felt like it was ripped from the pages of a Manga. Throughout his career, Liman has shown that in order to care about what happens during the action scenes you have to care about the characters first.

Chad Stahelski - Okay, so this is more of a sentimental pick, but it would also be a great way to keep the DNA of the original Matrix Trilogy alive. Stahelski worked as a stuntman for Neo himself, Keanu Reeves, on those films and he was also a stunt coordinator for them. In the years since, he has made a name for himself by co-directing John Wick, and directing John Wick: Chapter 2. While he’s untested in the realm of sci-fi, having only made the jump to directing three years ago, no one could argue that he doesn’t have a knack for kickass action. Bonus: Since this reboot is rumored to take place in the same world as the originals, having Stahelski around as a conduit to get “OG” Neo (Reeves) back for a key appearance couldn’t hurt.

Neill Blomkamp - When it comes to thought-provoking science fiction, Blomkamp came out swinging with his first two wide releases: District 9 and Elysium. He wrote and directed both, they each tackled heady ideas, and featured interesting visuals. The wheels kind of came off of the Blomkamp Wagon when Elysium wasn’t quite as well-received as District 9, and then his next film (Chappie) was a total dud. Critics have said Blomkamp can be a little self-indulgent, but that can be counter-acted by the fact that he’d be working off of Zak Penn’s Matrix script instead of his own. He’s shown a desire to work on mainstream sci-fi projects, with his attempts to adapt Halo to the big screen and to make a proper Alien sequel with Sigourney Weaver. While both of those projects fizzled, they seem to imply that Blomkamp would definitely consider entering the matrix.

Tim Miller - Aside from all the sci-fi goodness The Matrix can deliver, we know one thing: If it’s going to be a fitting continuation of the original series then the movie has to look amazing. All the timely, heady, nuanced stuff will mean little to mainstream audiences if the new Matrix isn’t a visual tour-de-force. With Deadpool, Miller revealed to the world that we had a new, cutting edge visual storyteller on our hands. While many will focus on the film’s biting script, and genre-redefining tone, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that Miller’s eye for exciting visuals wasn’t incredibly impressive. He also took a rather ho-hum, paint-by-numbers “superhero origin” tale and made it feel fresh, new, and exciting. Can you imagine what he could do with something more original?

Scott Derrickson - When Derrickson made his leap from low-budget horror films like Sinister to mainstream blockbusters with Marvel’s Doctor Strange, many compared his work there to The Matrix. That film felt, in many ways, like a mash-up of Inception and the work the Wachowskis did back in 1999. While Strange was more your typical light and fluffy Marvel Studios pseudo-comedy, we know Derrickson has a penchant for darker, more adult stories thanks to his earlier work- which includes The Day The Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves. He’s also just gotten to learn World-Building 101 by working for Marvel, and that’s a skill that could come in handy if Warner Bros. wants to expand the Matrix mythology into a multi-tiered franchise.

Alfonso Cuaron - Cuaron is one of those filmmakers that likes to make his presence felt, and then vanish back into his own world. He’s only really directed four mainstream movies, and three of them were Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, and Gravity. His work on the third Harry Potter singlehandedly revitalized the series, as he gave the world an added depth that was lacking from the first two entries from Chris Columbus. After his course-correction there, that franchise went on to become one of the most successful ever- and it was for Warner Bros. His Children of Men was one of the great pieces of thoughtful science fiction of this generation. Then, with Gravity, he showed that he can integrate really profoundly human themes into larger-than-life scenarios- which should be a must for any sci-fi flick. You may think you’re watching a movie about an astronaut lost in space, but you’re really watching a meditation on loss, grief, and rebirth. The fact that Cuaron is able to mix such h